Cross-Cultural Variations in Attitudes Toward Love

Abstract

Using the Love Attitude Scale, the first objective of this study was to examine the extent to which Lee’s six-factor colors of love model was able to account for data gathered across a large number of countries in Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that the structure postulated by Lee could be applied across multiple cultures. The second objective was to study possible cross-cultural variations in attitudes related to love. The hypotheses were that (a) factors involving strong personal feelings, such as mania, Eros, and agape, would be largely free of cultural influences and (b) factors involving strict social rules, and consequently low affects, such as Pragma, Storge, and Ludus, would be dependent on cultural influences. Each of these hypotheses was well supported by the data.